Frequently Asked Questions


How would your boss from your last job describe you?

My managers would describe me as someone who would rather tirelessly overcome obstacles on my own than continuously seek managerial guidance. I make my managers’ lives easier in this way. For example, when I first started working at firm C, I was asked to figure out ways to cut costs. Instead of relying on my manager, who had other projects to oversee, I decided to better understand the ITIL Service Management. After seeing what worked best and what could be improved, I took this information to my manager, who was grateful for the initiative I took

What are my weaknesses?

Disorganization 

I tend to be a bit disorganized. My role has always been a creative one, and while I have taken a class to learn better organizational skills, this does not come naturally to me. Nevertheless, I have a solid sense of priorities and a strong work ethic. While I plan to continue working to become more strategically organized, I can say from experience that this area of challenge for me will never keep me from submitted quality work on time. 

Lack of Patience and get bored easily  

My greatest weakness is my low patience when a team member withholds important information to the detriment of his or her peers or the assignment’s success. I have always tried to maximize knowledge-sharing by bringing team members together prior to launching any assignment to ensure everyone is on the same page. Yet, there have been times when people have withheld information even after these efforts. In those instances, I have learned to speak privately with those team members to understand why information was withheld.” 

Lack of Concentration & Multitasking 

I was diagnosed with ‘’hyperactive syndrome’’, that means my mental and physical systems works faster than the normal and is connected with the ‘’professional weakness’’ I think it is worth to be mention, lack of Concentration: 

Situation: It takes me some time to focus, and getting into a specific topic, I’ve created a habit of trying to multitask, try to do many things at the same time. That is a challenge if I need to do an intellectual-demanding task; 

Solution:  After I realise that I start to take action. I found some really cool online courses about ‘’Learn how to Learn’’, with hacks and tricks to be more productive, including exercises to be more concentrated, as the “Pomodoro technique’’. 

 

Respect hierarchy’s etiquette and diplomacy 

Hierarchy – to wait for his approval when contacting people from other teams and departments, especially if they are hierarchically superior than me. 

 

Perfectionism 

Stakeholders’ management 

In my project management responsibilities, when dealing with more than three stakeholders on a task, I tend to be overly diligent about ensuring everyone knows their role in the process and is working toward the same goal. My concern is that, with so many moving parts, it’s easy for someone or something to get off track. However, I have recognized that this style of management is not conducive to everyone feeling as though they have as equal stake in the success of the project, thus I am working to step back and let the other stakeholders take more initiative. 

 

Productivity – Document edition 

In my previous job, my tutor gave me a feedback, he noticed that i took longer to finish small tasks, like a report of an event, committee meeting, because I took a great deal of attention to the aesthetics of the documents – headers, corporate image, no typos, formation and wording. He said even it would be a good thing, many times, with tight deadlines and last-minute assignments it would be wiser don’t worry so much about certain details, especially when talking about internal documentation 

After this experience I‘m trying narrowing down the time to be ‘’perfect’’ and the time to be pragmatic and practical.

Tell me about how you handle difficult situations in the past

AIESEC – From Debt to profitability  

“Man in charge to bring the food to the table” 

Situation: During my studies, at AIESEC, at the biggest students and graduates network in the world had my first leadership role.  The branch had thousands of euros in debt  

Pretty much without experience I had to educate myself and at the same time try to build a team and a department  

Action 

  • Commercial Plan  
  • Recruit and Train – recruited, trained and managed a 11-person team.  

Results: Our combined effort resulted in 213 meetings, 6500 cold calls, and 20 new sponsors and partners. Our team improved 500% our annual revenue, leading the process that transform our branch historical debt of 6000€ in debts to a positive financial situation by the end of the year.  

 

siosLIFE – IT Selling 

Situation – Sales were low 

Action – Partnerships and a new business model: 

  • Partnerships – University to recruit a student and develop a Sales and Marketing Plan and with Microsoft Support , under the startup support program “Ativar Portugal” 
  • Business Model 
  • New selling strategy – From product to SaaS; 
  • Client target – Strategic shift of the way the company target its clients and buyers and its business model; 
  • Client and B2B (Private Homecare facilities and Public Sector); 
  • Leverage my personal contact network. 

Results 

  • After the first here understanding the market and focus in developing Development Partnerships, in the second we increase by 1000% and expand how revenue streams. 
  • Additionally, to the B2B market we also entered in the Public Procurement and tender, having one 2 key accounts that are still an important financial stream 
  • We also won a EU awards 

 

CIM Alto Minho – Email etiquete 

  • Situation – Email to the Managing Director of the organization. He was upset to receive an email about a minor issue for him. 
  • Action: Call him and asked for a personal meeting – I had the opportunity to know him better and to align our expectations. I thought I could have a better access to him because of one of my tutors, Mr. José Maria Costa 

 

European Parliament 

At the European Parliament, I missed a major deadline that caught my bosses off guard. 

  • Situation: I missed the deadline because I didn’t maintain proper communication with my team members.  
  • Action: As soon as I realized I was going to miss the deadline, I contacted all the stakeholders in the project to smooth things over, and we all put in the extra hours needed to get it completed quickly. 
  • Results: After missed the deadline, I created a spreadsheet for all future projects that showed everyone a project snapshot and clearly indicated deadlines and where we’re at in the process at any given time. Since then, I’ve never missed a deadline.
Biggest professional accomplishments to date?
  • Managed a Festival attended by more than 10.000 people; 
  • Created 3 different marketing teams – AIESEC, Juventude de Viana Sport Club and siosLIFE; 
  • Managed to have 50% of young people in the list in the last national elections; 
  • A deal with the Oporto Municipality of 50,000€ worth that made the startup to survived.
Where do I see myself in five years? Ten years?

I will be more prepare to face challenges, with an improved skill set and experiences that will allow me to have de confidence to go over them again or to embrace different tasks. I hope to take a leadership role so I can learn more about the strategic aspects and gain a better understanding of how the business as a whole works.